Score: A-

If nothing else you can’t say Izuku isn’t a guy willing to pay the price in order to do what is right. The show kind of had to cover for him being so incredibly reckless, but it doesn’t take away that he does have the right qualities to reach his goal of being a top hero. He just currently lacks a body that can properly accomplish that goal. But building up his body and getting more developed physically is just something that will require time and effort. Effort isn’t a problem for him, it’s just taking the time to reach that point. Right now he really is just at the starting line. His body can handle the power without blowing up, but not without suffering pretty extreme damage. Just taking out that robot utterly demolished his legs and arm. Although to be fair destroying that robot actually did take an incredible effort on his part. That thing wasn’t some push over, it was an over the top monster.

I have to give some credit to UA here. You really couldn’t just tell the students that Rescue Points were on the board. Otherwise you aren’t getting them to act for the reason you’d want. Maybe the same with the villains, but at some point you have to tell the test takers something. I’m kind of surprised though that they could get away with hiding part of the testing scheme. Wouldn’t people know from previous years what the practical exam was? Or do they change it up to prevent that? Doesn’t appear the students sign secrecy waivers though maybe that is the case. Once you get into the school you have to promise not to say anything about the exam.

Still, the test itself works pretty well. Destroying is something obvious which is fine. But rescue is something that probably doesn’t have meaning unless a person is doing it of their own will. This is a hero school. They do need to test things that can’t really be revealed beforehand. It’s figuring out heroes so you at least need people who aren’t averse to helping people. Although I suppose you still pass the entrance exam if you just have an incredibly powerful quirk for destruction or binding. Which also makes sense. You don’t want people that powerful just walking around pissed off. The incredibly powerful and the incredibly self-sacrificing, both are useful to mould into proper heroes.

While I suppose you could say it’s surprising that so few took action in a situation like this exam, maybe there is a point to it outside of Deku being the main character. One is that someone being so self-sacrificing is a rare quality. When told to flee from something it isn’t normal to run forward into danger. That’s why not everyone becomes fire fighters or rescue workers. Plus these are students. People freak out when facing the unexpected, which is normal. Of course they are trying to be heroes which probably shouldn’t be normal so maybe that shows a flaw in a lot of the test takers. They want the glory of being heroes and are extremely confident if not cocky about their abilities. Almost nobody was really nervous except for Deku and Ochaco. And not surprisingly they are two that passed. People who presumably knew their limits and struggled with them, willing to push themselves to save someone in need.

And what a pair of rescues they were. Deku throwing himself into the danger zone there. Even though the guy had all the reasons not to get involved he still did. He had no points, he was in a hurry, it was extremely dangerous, but he still went. Went in with a pretty incredible effort that definitely got him noticed. I mean damn despite his body not being perfect yet for this quirk he still delivered one hell of a punch. Makes you think about how insanely powerful All Might really is. Once he can actually handle that much power the sky will be the limit for him.

Credit given to Ochaco as well though. Despite having been stuck moments before she found the time to get herself free and float up high enough to use her quirk on Deku before he smashed either his arm or his body into the ground. Plus she did go afterwards and try to give up some of her points, despite the fact that she probably didn’t have many to spare to her knowledge. For all she knew, Ochaco had a moderate but probably low end amount of points and yet she was still willing to give some of that up.

Not a bad episode. Shows both the good qualities of Deku and how far he has to go. The utter devastation he suffered in this exam is crazy. Busted up his arm from the punch and his legs from the jump. He can’t possibly survive even with someone who has a healing quirk if he can only use one special move for each limb. Ignoring the pure agony that would involve (maybe the shock killed his pain receptors for that moment) that just can’t go on. He needs to amp up the physical training to be able to handle it better. Also shows that it will take time for people to take him seriously. His past leaving him very meek and not nearly as confident as most of the people there.

I enjoyed this one. Got to see a few main characters from the ‘straight-laced student president type’, the nice girl who apparently gets sick and throws up rainbows (nerves? Power consequence? Who knows). We met some characters and got to see how Deku can do amazing things but also look freaked out and nervous as heck. Not someone you easily see being this badass hero type. Should make his journey something to watch.